Justice Brandeis Innocence Project
Students Talk with Released Inmate
Damien Echols, His Wife, His Defense
Team Advisor, and a ReporterWho Believed Him

On Tuesday, February 5, as part of 'DEIS Impact, Brandeis students who investigate wrongful convictions through their work at the Schuster Institute's Justice Brandeis Innocence Project, will lead a discussion with former death row inmate Damien Echols, his wife Lorri Davis, his defense team advisor Lonnie Soury, and Erin Moriarty, a correspondent for CBS’ 48 Hours who interviewed Echols both on death row and after his release.

Echols' nightmare began in 1994 at the age of 18 when he was convicted, along with Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin, of the horrific murders of three young boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Echols, considered the “ring leader” of the group now known as the “West Memphis Three”was sentenced to death. He spent 18 years on death row in Arkansas' prison for a crime many believed he did not commit.

While on death row, Echols married Lorri Davis, a landscape architect from New York who became convinced of his innocence and moved to Arkansas to be nearer to him while she worked on his case.

In 1996, HBO released a documentary titled “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills.” After seeing this documentary, Johnny Depp, struck by what he perceived to be a horrible injustice, began to publicly support Echols and even donated funds to his legal defense. Johnny Depp, Eddie Vedder, and director Peter Jackson were all strong, public defenders of Echols' innocence.

In August of 2011, after DNA evidence was found to be inconsistent with all three defendants, Echols, Miskelley, and Baldwin were released from prison under an unusual plea bargain deal.

After Echols was released from prison, he wrote "Life After Death," a memoir chronicling his years on death row.

An interview with Echols by Moriarty aired in September on CBS' 48 Hours. Video clips from 48 Hours and “West of Memphis," the documentary produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Amy Berg, will also be screened at this event.